Remote controlling presentation with a 'slide clicker'

We are new to using OpenLP. In fact we are still in the process of testing how well it will work for us.

This week we had a visiting speaker at Church who wanted to control the progress of his presentation using a wireless clicker.

We could not work out how to do this with the presentation running inside OpenLP. We reverted to using Powerpoint outside OpenLP. Within the OpenLP the clicker simply moved the cursor up and down the service manager items.

Is that the way for us? Or can we configure OpenLP to accept and forward next slide clicks to the presentation which is being used?

Comments

I've not tested this as I don't have a clicker (or a computer that allows the use of PowerPoint (thanks, OSX...)), but I do know that the way clickers work is that - put simply - your computer sees them as a keyboard, and the buttons as the general keyboard shortcuts that advance presentations.

As you experienced the cursor moving up and down the service manager items, that implies to me that the 'active' control within OpenLP was that service. Thus, when loading up a presentation, if you click on the first slide within the 'Live' pane, in theory, this should allow the clicker to work its way through the presentation (and, by extension, through the regular service items).

(If you could let us know how you get on with this; I've set OpenLP in my church up so that all the operator needs to do is hit the down arrow throughout; knowing if it works with a clicker would help... if there are any good long-range clickers out there anyway!)

I think PowerPoint 'clickers' effectively send keyboard characters, which are typically the cursor (up & down) and the "B" key for toggling blanking. In OpenLP, you should be able to configure the keyboard operation in 'Settings / Configure Shortcuts', and add/change the characters in the 'Live Toolbar' section. You can define 2 characters for each action, so as long as you don't have clashing characters defined, you should be able to match configure the clicker characters for the 'Previous Slide', 'Next Slide' and 'Blank Screen' actions.